09.14.06
Lindsay Crouch
757-864-3189, 757-870-6912 (mobile)
RELEASE: 06-061
NASA BRINGS ANOTHER MISSE 'SUITCASE' HOME
What goes up must come down. That's exactly what the Materials
International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) team will be reminding
themselves tomorrow when the third MISSE suitcase to hang out in
space is retrieved from the International Space Station (ISS).
On Friday, Sept. 15, Atlantis Astronauts Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper
and Joe Tanner will don their spacesuits for the third spacewalk
during the STS-115 mission. One of their duties during the six and
one-half-hour extravehicular activity (EVA) will be to retrieve MISSE
5 from its location on the ISS. Tanner, who is a veteran spacewalker,
will handle this task.
The suitcase, called a Passive Experiment Container (PEC), is filled
with a variety of materials and experiments and was attached to the
ISS in July 2005 during the STS-114 mission.
The only way to determine how different materials will perform in
space is to test them in that environment. Laboratories can simulate
just one or two space environmental factors at a time. The research
from MISSE will provide the insight needed to develop materials for
future spacecraft and will also help researchers make materials and
coatings that will last longer on Earth.
MISSE 5 was the third in this series of experiments to catch a ride to
the ISS aboard the shuttle to expose materials to the elements of
space. The primary experiments on MISSE 5 were built by the Naval
Research Laboratory, in Washington, D.C., to test advanced solar
cells. MISSE 5 also includes a transmitter provided by the NRL so the
performance of its test specimens was downlinked to Earth throughout
its one-year stay in space. When the MISSE 5 transmitter was not in
use, it was used by amateur radio operators as a relay station.
NASA's Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Va., supplied
approximately 200 specimens of advanced materials from many
partnering researchers to MISSE 5.
After hitching a ride home aboard Atlantis, MISSE 5 will travel to the
NRL, where the solar cells will be analyzed. Its material samples
will be removed from the PEC and will then be sent to their original
homes around the country for research and analysis. The specimens
will be tested to see if they still have the unique properties needed
to complete space missions.
The MISSE Project is funded jointly by NASA and the Department of
Defense (DoD). The Langley Research Center manages the MISSE project.
Other NASA partners include NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland;
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Johnson Space Center, Houston; and
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
DoD partners are Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.; Air Force
Office of Scientific Research, Arlington, Va.; and Air Force Research
Lab, Dayton, Ohio.
Industry partners include The Boeing Company, Chicago; Hughes Aircraft
Company, Torrance, Calif.; Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, Md.; Loral,
Seabrook, Md.; Rockwell International, Richardson, Texas; and TRW,
Redondo Beach, Calif.
Friday's spacewalk and MISSE 5 retrieval will be available on NASA TV.
NASA TV's Public, Education and Media channels are available on an
MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72
degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical
polarization. In Alaska and Hawaii, they're on AMC-7 at 137 degrees
west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal
polarization. For NASA TV information and access to the Public
Channel, visit:
www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more information on the MISSE project, visit:
http://misse1.larc.nasa.gov
For more information on research at NASA, visit:
www.nasa.gov
-end-